Government launches £2m Olympic volunteering legacy charity

13 Aug 2012 News

A new £2m government-backed Olympic volunteering legacy charity, has been set up by David Cameron, with volunteering leaders Lucy de Groot, and Justin Davis Smith as trustees.

A new £2m government-backed Olympic volunteering legacy charity, has been set up by David Cameron, with volunteering leaders Lucy de Groot, and Justin Davis Smith as trustees.

The chief executives of CSV and Volunteering England, respectively, will help lead the Join In Trust - set up to promote volunteering in local community organisations. Its first project, Join In Local Sport, has been heavily promoted today on an official Olympic email to millions of people.

Join In Local Sport's first campaign is to get as many people as possible to turn up, take part and join in at their local sports facilities this weekend.

Its website includes online listings of local sporting events around the country and allows members of the public to search for events via postcodes, and groups to add events via an online form.

As part of the weekend, sporting icons Daley Thompson, Sharron Davies and Jonathan Edwards, broadcaster John Inverdale, and current Olympians will visit a wide range of these sports clubs.

David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, said:

"We need to make the most of this magic moment and harness the enthusiasm for sport and for volunteering the Games has generated. That's why the 'Join In Local Sport' project is so important, so that we bring London 2012 back to the place it begins for every great champion: their local sports club and the great volunteers who make it all possible."

The Join In Trust board is made of eight trustees and is chaired by Sir Charles Allen CBE. The chief executive is Ian Nunn, prior to this he was a consultant to LOCOG and the chief financial officer of Eurostar.

The organisation is led by mix of people from sporting, business and volunteering backgrounds and has been funded with a £2m grant from the Cabinet Office's Social Action Fund.